Controllable Lifestyle Specialties...

[MCAT guy]

There haven't been many threads on "controllable lifestyle" specialties, so I figured I would start one.

This research was interesting:
Match Rates Into Higher-Income, Controllable Lifestyle Specialties for Students From Highly Ranked, Research-Based Medical Schools Compared With Other Applicants
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2951775/

the following 9 specialties were identified as having a more CL consistent with classification in previous studies: anesthesiology, dermatology, emergency medicine, neurology, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, pathology, psychiatry, and radiology. These specialties were classified as CL because they offer more opportunity to have regular and predictable work hours.

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[VoiceofReason]

"Factors impacting medical student specialty career choice are poorly understood, but may include income potential and lifestyle features such as limited and predictable work hours"

I love the use of "poorly understood" as if we're talking about molecular pathogenesis of septic shock or something.

 

[VoiceofReason]

Why do people prefer jobs that don't suck? - currently an area of active research

 

[MCAT guy]

"Factors impacting medical student specialty career choice are poorly understood, but may include income potential and lifestyle features such as limited and predictable work hours"

I love the use of "poorly understood" as if we're talking about molecular pathogenesis of septic shock or something.

Lol, nice catch.

 

[2012mdc]

Why do people prefer jobs that don't suck? - currently an area of active research

That is a really tough question. It is poorly understood why one would prefer a job where one works less and gets paid more. Maybe it's the guilt factor?

 

[officedepot]

I've decided it's more about some of those specialties dealing less with annoying, rude, ungrateful patients who are almost all super obese and the cause of their own problems (yes I am generalizing and yes there are plenty of nice pts but you only remember the bad ones).

Pathology is another lifestyle field I would add with good pay as well.

Also, other fields like IM and surg have lost their luster. However, due to the future lack of general surgeons, for example, I think the pendulum is starting to swing back since pay for them is pretty decent compared to other fields. I think the main issue with that field is that it needs to be changed so that separate tracts (i.e. vascular, trauma, abdominal, transplant, CT, etc) need to have separate residencies to the best of their ability to make the tract shorter to draw more people. Lots of people just don't want to take 10 years after med school to be an independent physician.

 

[muhali3]

I think this study fails to take into account the large variety of practice options available in nearly all specialties.

 

[MCAT guy]

I think this study fails to take into account the large variety of practice options available in nearly all specialties.

Well, you could say that. Yet, for example, a group of EM physicians share similar practice situations compared to a group of FM physicians. I think it's fair to generalize for the sake of comparison.

 

[muhali3]

I think it'd be better to name non-lifestyle specialties than lifestyle specialties. Most specialties have options for a good lifestyle. Technically ER is lifestyle due to the low hours and high income, but the shift-work can be a bit taxing, and working nights/weekends/holidays isn't too fun.

 

[Doublecortin]

]Why do people prefer jobs that don't suck?[/B] - currently an area of active research

 

[BigRedBeta]

One could argue that despite the "CL" many of these specialties still fail to rate high on career satisfaction surveys of physicians (http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6963/9/166). This disconnect between perceived positives and realized outcomes is an interesting dichotomy and one that does represent a research question - though I doubt there's any easy answer to be found.

 

[DrYoda]

Why do people prefer jobs that don't suck? - currently an area of active research

 

[45408]

Why do people prefer jobs that don't suck? - currently an area of active research